Rethinking the Law Firm Organizational Form and Capitalization Structure
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Scholarship Repository University of Minnesota Law School Articles Faculty Scholarship 2013 Rethinking the Law Firm Organizational Form and Capitalization Structure Edward S. Adams University of Minnesota Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_articles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Edward S. Adams, Rethinking the Law Firm Organizational Form and Capitalization Structure, 78 MO. L. REV. 777 (2013), available at https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_articles/90. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Minnesota Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in the Faculty Scholarship collection by an authorized administrator of the Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Rethinking the Law Firm Organizational Form and Capitalization Structure EdwardS. Adams 1. INTRODUCTION The recent bankruptcy of large law firms has energized the debate over the viability of the traditional partnership model. Dewey & LeBeouf filed for bankruptcy in May 2012, becoming the largest law firm bankruptcy in U.S. history.' At its peak, Dewey employed 1,400 lawyers in several offices across the globe, causing some to ask whether Dewey's collapse was an iso- lated product of poor management or a symptom of greater systemic prob- lems. 2 But Dewey's bankruptcy was not the first to result in the dissolution of a large firm. The financial downturn of 2008 deeply affected the legal profession, and several firms went under. Many have already questioned the traditional business structure of the law firm in light of these bankruptcies and the manner in which they oc- curred.4 Partner defections and limited capital place criticism squarely on the partnership model as a major factor in these bankruptcies. Movements in Australia and the United Kingdom to liberalize law firm business structures and allow for both outside equity and multidisciplinary practices (MDPs) further fuel the criticism here in the United States. The American Bar Asso- ciation (ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct (Model Rules) have long prohibited public ownership and MDPs in law firms over concerns that such arrangements would encourage violations of the professional rules.7 * I am grateful to Christopher Bentley, James Kiner, Ralph Foote, Lauren Bergstrom, Jen Rutz, Janelle McCarty, and Kelsey Knutson for their exemplary re- search assistance and challenging and invaluable comments. 1. Peter Lattman, Dewey & LeBoeuf Files for Bankruptcy, N.Y. TIMES DEALBOOK (May 28, 2012, 10:21 PM), http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/ 28/dewey-leboeuf-files-for-bankruptcy/. 2. Id. 3. Examples include two San Francisco firms, Thelen and Heller Ehrman, and Howrey out of Washington. Id. 4. Michael Bobelian, Dewey's Downfall Exposes the Demise of Partnerships, FORBES (June 7, 2012, 10:49 AM), http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelbobelian/ 2012/06/07/deweys-downfall-exposes-the-demise-of-partnerships/; Report: New York State BarAssociation: Report of the Task Force on Nonlawyer Ownership, 76 ALB. L. REV. 865, 947 (2012-2013). 5. See Lattman, supra note 1. 6. See infra Part IV.A. 7. See MODEL RULES OF PROF'L CONDUCT R. 5.4 (2012); Paul D. Paton, Multi- disciplinary Practice Redux: Globalization, Core Values, and Reviving the MDP 778 MTSSOURI LAW REVIEW [Vol. 78 The goal of this Article is to examine the partnership model and advo- cate for a change in the Model Rules that would allow for public ownership of law firms, and to make disclosure of firm financials a mandatory require- ment for all firms with over 100 lawyers. Part II explores the history and evolution of limited liability and law firm structures in the United States. Part III discusses incorporated law firms and MDPs and how they might benefit U.S. law firms. Part IV looks at the developments in the United Kingdom and Australia and the forces of globalization that have an effect on U.S. poli- cy choices, concluding that global competition for legal services may force our hand. Part V advocates for similar changes in the U.S. public ownership because allowing public ownership in law firms will benefit both law firms and their clients and make firms more competitive globally. This Part con- cludes by advocating for mandatory disclosure requirements to benefit firms, prospective attorneys, and their clients. II. THE EVOLUTION OF LIMITED LIABILITY AND LAW FIRM STRUCTURES The formation and governance of business entities is regulated by state law. 8 Each state has a history of corporate and partnership regulation, and in recent decades new hybrid forms of business entities have evolved to fill the needs that corporate and partnership laws alone do not adequately address. 9 Law firms have been adopting the new business models made available by state statutes.' 0 Most notably, law firms have begun taking Debate in America, 78 FORDHAM L. REV. 2193, 2193-94 (2010); John Eligon, Selling Pieces of Law Firms to Investors, N.Y. TIMES, Oct. 29, 2011, at Bl, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/business/selling-pieces-of-law-firms-to- investors.html?pagewanted=all; Sara Randazzo, ABA Panel Says No to Outside Law Firm Ownership, AM. LAW. DAILY (Dec. 5, 2011, 7:05 PM), available at LexisNexis. 8. See J.W. Verret, Terrorism Finance,Business Associations, and the "Incor- poration TransparencyAct, " 70 LA. L. REV. 857, 857 (2010) ("The process by which these entities are created has traditionally been governed under state law."). 9. See Robert A. Kessler, With Limited Liability For All: Why Not a Partner- ship Corporation?,36 FORDHAM L. REV. 235, 252 (1967); Christel Walther, LLC and Lawyers: A Good Combination?, 50 Loy. L. REV. 359, 406 (2004); see also J. Wil- liam Callison & Allan W. Vestal, "They've Created a Lamb With Mandibles of Death": Secrecy, Disclosure, and Fiduciary Duties in Limited Liability Firms, 76 IND. L.J. 271, 271-74 (2001) (discussing popular acceptance of reform efforts for business organizations); Thomas E. Rutledge, The Alphabet Soup of Unincorporated Business Law: What is Happening with LLCs, LPs, LLPs, GPs, LLLPs, & BTs and Dealing with RUPA, RERULPA, (RE)ULLCA, UNETA, MITA, & META, VMLO202 ALI-ABA 1 (Feb. 2006) (exploring the various disparate forms of modern business organization within the legal context). 10. See Callison & Vestal, supra note 9, at 273-74. 2013] RETHINKING THE ORGANIZATIONAL FORM 779 advantage of limited liability." While the evolution to limited liability within law firms has been a huge transformation, states have not yet enabled law firms to utilize other business forms that would allow them to have both lim- ited liability and the ability to manage capital accounts and cash flow in a way that would leave firms less vulnerable to the exit of a partner or broader outside economic influences. A. The Evolution of State PartnershipLaws and Their Effect on Law Firm Structures General Partnership (GP) law was originally codified in 191412 and be- came the standard business form used by law firms.13 The most attractive characteristic of the GP is the pass-through taxation of firm income, in which partnership profits are not subject to an entity-level tax but rather are taxed as personal income only when the partners receive a profit distribution.' 4 More and more firms, however, have foregone the traditional GP form to instead partake in attractive limited liability entities such as limited liability compa- nies (LLC) and limited liability partnerships (LLP).15 Whereas in a GP each partner is exposed to "unlimited[] personal[] liab[ility] for both the miscon- duct of his or her partners, as well as any debts of the partnership to the extent that either exceed the assets of the partnership,"' 6 in the LLC or LLP entities the respective member or partner (collectively "member") can at a minimum limit their personal liability to their own torts and thus remove any personal liability for the torts of other members.' 7 11. See Carol R. Goforth, Limiting the Liability of GeneralPartners in LLPs: An Analysis of Statutory Alternatives, 75 OR. L. REV. 1139, 1140-43 (1996) [hereinafter Goforth, Limiting the Liability] (stating that the introduction of limited liability to professional service providers, such as law firms, relieves partners from the burden of unlimited personal liability under the general partnership model). Partners previously had been personally liable "for any loss or injury arising out of 'any wrongful act or omission of any partner acting in the ordinary course of partnership business or with the authority of the co-partners."' Id. at 1222 n.1 (quoting Unif. P'ship Act § 13 (1994), 6 U.L.A. 444 (1995)). 12. See id. at 1158. 13. See Martin C. McWilliams, Jr., Limited Liability Law Practice, 49 S.C. L. REV. 359, 361 (1998). 14. See 26 U.S.C. § 701 (2011). 15. See Joseph S. Naylor, Is the Limited Liability PartnershipNow the Entity of Choice for Delaware Law Firms?, 24 DEL. J. CORP. L. 145, 148-56 (1999) (arguing that the Professional Corporation model is an outdated method of providing limited liability and associating the 1981 legislation on tax that provided partnerships with the same tax incentives as those available to corporations). 16. Id. at 147-48. 17. See id. at 152-53. 780 MISSOURI LAW REVIEW [Vol. 78 The LLC entity was first introduced in Wyoming in 1977.18 Florida was the only other state to enact an LLC statute until the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) explicitly acknowledged that LLCs would be recognized as partner- ships.19 After the IRS made this acknowledgement, many states quickly jumped on the limited liability bandwagon hoping to lure new business into the state to take advantage of corporate tax revenues, as well as investment 20 21 capital.